The concept and even some great applications of 1:1 Marketing have been around for some time.  Sending not only personalized communications, but highly targeted content to your target market maximizes relevance and has been proven to significantly grow response rates.  The challenge that many face is not as much the strategy surrounding such campaigns, but how to effectively execute them.

Your Data is Key
In order to move beyond simple personalization to highly relevant, customized communications, it is critical that your database contain significant information on your target market.  You need to move beyond demographics to include psychographic and behavioral data.  One of the best ways to accomplish this is in the effective integration of CRM and web analytics systems.

ExactTarget is R.O.Why! Marketing's email services technology partner.  We use this platform to deliver interactive marketing communications for our clients and the primary reason we chose them was the strides they've made in connecting the dots of the customer communication lifecycle.  From the standpoint of understanding the variables of effective customer communications, they just get it.  In addition, ExactTarget has put the tools in place to help marketers leverage their data to communicate effectively via email, SMS, and voice broadcast.  They have developed the APIs to allow for easy integration with third party systems, and they have truly put the marketer in control of the customer relationship.

Using the tools available today, marketers can truly take their communications to 1:1.  Some examples include triggered email marketing communications that leverage behavioral data to drive the process.  These tools allow marketing firms and their clients initiate communications not only based on what they currently know, but on what their customers do next, and to leverage a platform to efficiently develop and deliver content that is more relevant than anything they've used before.

For example:

  • Webinar registrants get follow up communications about a series of whitepapers or case studies
  • Downloading a piece triggers an email with content specific to what was downloaded
  • Action on the custom content drives a printed direct mail follow up with a PURL and custom landing page
  • Action on the landing page triggers a phone call follow up with a custom set of solutions presented

Again, what's critical in making this work is the data.  What do you know about your customer now, and what data must you collect at each point of interaction to better customize each follow up communication?

Step 1?  Get the database ready.